Goode's Wounds May Prove Fatal

March 05, 1986|The Morning Call

"I'm not willing to say he's mortally wounded . . . . He's all we have right now."

- Philadelphia City Council member John F. White Jr.

The wounded party is Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode. His injuries, which may well end the elected political life of that city's first black mayor, have been caused by shrapnel radiating from the explosion that was the MOVE debacle last May. The fatal fusillade may have been fired over the weekend with the leaked release of a draft of the findings of the independent body that became known as the MOVE commission. That report, although admittedly not in its final form, used the following words - among others - to characterize the conduct of top city officials prior to, during and following the horror that consumed 11 lives and an entire West Philadelphia neighborhood: "reckless, ill-conceived, hasty, irresponsible, excessive and unreasonable."

Consider the following excerpt from the commission's report - and consider, also, that the membership of the study organization was selected by none other than Mayor Goode: "The mayor abdicated his responsibilities as a leader when, after mid-day (during the MOVE siege May 13), he permitted a clearly failed operation to continue which posed great risk to life and property." The commission, referred to the deaths of five children of members of the radical group as "unjustifiable homicide."

There is significantly more information contained in this potentially destructive document. It flails the mayor, the former police commissioner, former city managing director - but primarily Mr. Goode - for failures, mistakes, errors in judgment, lapses in communications. It has wounded him . . . severely, perhaps mortally, in terms of political life. What has the mayor's reaction been? "I don't believe that there is anything significantly new that can be said about MOVE that will impact upon my ability to govern," he said over the weekend. There are few in Philadelphia who believe that. One wonders if even Wilson Goode believes it, or whether this is just an example of political muscle-flexing - or worse, an inability to recognize the magnitude of his failure.

The full, final and official report of the MOVE commission is only days away from release. With a draft copy having been leaked to The Philadelphia Inquirer, however, and with the commission chairman conceding that the final version will not differ in any substantial measure from the draft, there will probably be no reversing the immeasurable damage done to the administration of the City of Philadelphia.